Light affects our moods, and we all need enough natural sunlight to feel energised. It stands to reason that we want our homes to be light and bright too.
Lighting a home with well-chosen light fittings goes a long way to brighten the space but there are other considerations when buying lights.
We’ll talk you through some of the important factors and give guidance on styles that evoke calm happy feelings.
The right lights for your room speak with the same narrative as the decor. You’ll feel an instant feeling of calmness as the whole decorative pallet becomes harmonious.
For those of you undecided on the style of decor to have, perhaps you are at the idea-gathering stage. We’ll also show you some trends and themes that are popular right now to inspire your choices of decor. Explore the popular trends for lighting and home decor.
What should you consider when buying a new light?
Whilst nature provides light by day it doesn’t by night. All too often within our homes we try to rely on natural light from windows and don’t give due time to considering how to light our home in the evenings.
The Right Type Of Lights For Your Home.
There are several types of lighting options available today. When considering what type of lighting will work best for your home. Look at the space it stands to reason, a small space will need fewer lights than larger rooms but how much light do you actually need? Allow 250 lumens for each square meter of space. Lumen is a measurement of light not how much energy the light uses. Want to know about lumens?
Height Matters
If you live in a space with high ceilings, you might want to use suspended lights. This type of lighting can hang lower into the space providing better all-around light. Rooms with lower ceiling heights are better with flush lighting or semi-flush lighting which does impede too much the space.
Lights for high ceiling heights
Lights for low ceiling heights
Period Drama’s
Aside from getting the right height of light for the space, one other consideration is finding lights and lamps that fit with the period of your home. Be it medieval or midcentury the age of your home will speak with a narrative of the past. Many of us living in a home with period characteristics want light fittings to reflect that style. Explore Period Lighting Styles.
Others may want to reinvent the home and ignore past styles, favouring modern looks both are right, it’s your home and the styles you like are right!
Illuminating insights
Ensure that the light is bright enough to provide the required illumination for the space. We mentioned already 250 lumens per square meter is a good basic starting point but the colour of your paint, wallpaper and furniture also play a part. Dark colours absorb light to that end if you have dark colours up the lumens or add additional lamps to make your dark decor really shine. Light colours reflect light, as do mirrors, and shiny, or reflective surfaces.
Talking of colours light bulbs also come in nuanced shades of white ranging from cold blue to warmer white which is my personal favourite as it mimics the old-style bulbs beautifully.
Level Up
Taking lighting to the next level is easier than most realise. Layers of light give depth to the space. One source of lighting seldom does a good enough job. Choose a mixture of fittings, ceiling walls, tables and floor lamps.
Some areas of the home need extra light where tasks take place for example above a countertop in the kitchen. Worktops, where food is prepared, need some form of light to illuminate the workstation effectively. One of the most popular is a pendant lamp, groups of lights also make a feature of the island. Check out our guide to choosing a perfect pendant light.
Be on your metal
The colour of the fitting should add to the overall decorative mood your wish to create. Brass, bronze, and gold-coloured lighting bring warmth, whilst cool metallic such as chrome, steel, and silver lighting have a modern freshness.
Place for everything
Light fixtures and lamps can be affixed to walls or ceilings or freestanding.
Free-standing lamps such as table lamps can be placed on a sideboard’s bedside table or other items of furniture, they, like floor lamps, can be used as accent lighting. Floor and table lighting serves a practical purpose, lighting bedside cabinets or bringing extra light for reading. No room is complete without lamps there’s a variety of styles so no matter the interior decor there is a lamp that will add to the ambience perfectly.
Fixed lights give general lighting. Mixing the types of light fittings helps to create a better overall light effect.
Modern Values
Lighting is one of those things we take for granted until it goes away. When we go to sleep at night, we turn out the overhead light because we think that the room will be darker. We leave our desk light on because we know that it will help us write. Turn on our bathroom light before going to use the bathroom because we know we need to see where to go. We turn on the bedroom light before leaving the room because we know that we want to see where we’re headed. Seldom do we take time to consider how lights provide light, and how much energy we use in the process.
LED lighting is the most efficient form of lighting produced. LED lighting is efficient and kinder to the environment for that reason we’d recommend LED as a natural choice for enlightened consumers. Lots of people still think of LED as new, it’s been around for decades. It’s time people tune in to the powerful light source, Light emitting diodes take very little electricity saving homeowners money.
Further advancements now mean the diodes can be integrated into light fittings, without the need to be first installed into a light bulb. This means light fitments can be sculpted into new exciting shapes. Explore the array of lights where LED is integrated and see for yourself the artistic designs.